Never Break a House RULE
by Nowlive
Summary: Post EW. The guys live together and work for the Preventers to prevent chaos and destruction in their lives they decide to create 20 rules that must always be followed. What are those rules? And why were they created?  1x2, 3x4, 5xS, others
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMERS: I don't own anything... Please don't sue me for I can't afford to pay for any legal assistance.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is my first GW fic, I will try to keep the guys in characters, but please should they stray from their intended path don't be too angry. As you will see I'm a serious need of a beta. My English is passable and I make lot of grammars mistakes. Please, I need someone to betad it. Thank you.

Exploring and understanding the Gboys rules following a mission for Preventers. YAOI (future)1x2 (enstabilished) 3x4,5xS,6x9,13xU,RxOC

**Never break a house-rule**

by livi

chapter 1

*_#01 – Leave no man behind (01 included!)_*

Duo was slowly making his way back at home, he had served undercover for the past twelve hour to get final proves on a high profile person. Such person was the Vice Minister of Humanitarian Care and Services, Randall Wickens.

For the last twelve hour Duo has been in his company not as the fine Preventer agent he was, but as the street kid running away from home and ready to do anything not to be sent back.

Of course under the guise of a malnourished child, only Duo – out of the five of them, former Gundam pilots – was the most credible and also he had the expertise for such a role. Not that Commander Une was happy about it, nor Colonel Po or Colonel Marquise, after five years from the war Duo was still young enough to be considered a child and thin enough to pass for a malnourished and runaway one.

Due to malnutrition and illness in his youth years Duo was in fact the shortest of the five young men working for Preventers. Trowa was still by far the tallest and Heero and Wufei were close in their heights. Even Quatre was taller than Duo and since he started to follow Heero's schedule he had outgrown Duo by muscular mass in both his upper and lower body.

Doctor Colonel Sally Po had studied all the pilots and of them all Duo was still the most affected by the wars and the chemistry used on them by the scientists. And even thought he had growth some, he has yet to reach his ideal eight. Something that bothered him constantly.

But being the shortest and the young-looking one has his advantage. For example no one suspect him to be the dangerous being he was and his superior, namely Une, Po and Marquise had a soft spot for him. In fact after the successfully mission he had been told to rest and to give his report with calm the following days. Not hurry at all.

He was glad that Colonel Po hadn't be part of the mission, if else she would have sent him directly to her clinic in HQ but Zechs accepted his quick assurance of well being and sent him on his way home.

Sighing to himself he took a peek at the house in front of him, the small four bedroom house he shared with the other pilots since they all accepted their place in the organization. It was small and cozy and Duo loved it just because. Never in his fantasy he would have hoped they would end up all together, maybe they could have worked together but actually living? That was a dream he had never dared hope.

Having grown as a part of a gang as a street rat Duo felt their group of pilots very much like a family. Quatre not being an effective agent but rather a politician and head of one of the largest company of the whole colony and earth sphere alike meant he was often away. And the other three were often sent on mission two per time as rules prescribed. Still each time he passed that threshold Duo felt at home.

Walking the small sideways to reach the door Duo felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. Snorting in annoyance he flipped it open without even looking at the ID caller.

"Duo!"

The high tone of voice had him flinch away from the phone and look at it darkly. Wondering why the hell Relena was calling him he prepared himself for the lastest tiring thing of the day. "Relena, or is it Miss Peacecraft that is calling?"

"Only when I call you Agent Night."

With a snort he began to fumble with the door "What can I do for you?"

"Have you forgot already what day it is today?"

Frowning even more Duo stepped inside the dark house "What I'm forgetting here Relena? Sure is not Christmas, last I checked it was in December." and they were still in November, or so he hoped.

"Very funny," the voice had lost the small resemblance of warmth that had turning steel cold "my party was today, or rather IS today. In fact you should be here!"

Cursing to himself he quickly turned to flip on the light only to find himself pressed over the door by a hard and strong body. His phone slipped from his fingers as his head slam against the wood of the door. His hands were firmly pulled behind his back as a monotonous voice began to read his right as a pair of cuffs were locked on his wrists.

"What the hell is going on here?" he growled angrily trying to push himself away, only barely registering the monotonous voice finishing his speech and associate it as Trowa's. Of course the body pressed against his that was patting him down was Heero's and the calm voice thanking Relena through his phone was Wufei.

"Guys, what the hell...?" he struggle again only to stop short as Heero's hands began to search the front of his treasures. His eyes shot open forgetting the pain and the tiredness as slowly he was being divested of all of his weapons. "C...can someone tell me what's going on?"

"Have you not listen to what I said Maxwell?" Trowa's voice came too close to his ear for his taste as he began to search him along with Heero. "You are under arrest, shut up now or everything you are saying will be used against you."

Growling he tried again to push himself away from the door only to have his face pressed harder against the wooden surface by Heero. "Stop struggling."

He couldn't understand, he felt panic rising over his body. Never before his friends had treated him like this, arresting? For what? He had done nothing. Was he being framed? But by who? And what were they going to do with him?

He was forcefully pulled away from the door and dragged over the couch where Wufei dumped him unceremoniously. "You better confess everything and face your righteous punishment."

"Punishment? Confessing? 'Fei... I...I really don't understand! I've done nothing, I swear!" he looked up pleadingly at his friends surrounding him. Trowa was standing in front of him, with Wufei and Heero beside him one on each side. "Tro? 'Ro?"

He looked first up Wufei's face, but he had to quickly look away because of the disappointment he saw there, Heero's too was impossible for him to look at, he was glowing with anger and something akin to disgust. Trowa was the safest to look at, being impossible for him to assume an expression that was not neutral. "Trowa... please can you tell me what..."

"What is the rule #8 Duo?" Heero's voice came strong and steady making him flinch by the anger he heard in it.

Looking at their unspoken leader with growing fear Duo shook his head softly "I... It was an order I couldn't not do it Heero."

Taking hold of his chin when he moved to look away Heero forced his gaze back to him again and spoke in a deadly whisper "The eighth rule Duo!"

Shutting his eyes as if to ready himself from a strike Duo recited one of their group basilar rules "Never go on a mission without backup... without one of you as backup."

The rules were twenty and almost every one of them has been created through painful experience. The eighth rule has appeared rather necessary when it was evident that no one in the agency was up to their level and no one could provide enough protection for them. Everyone of the rules came with experiences and those usually ended up with one of them in the hospital.

By omitting he had been called on a mission Duo had broken said rule and also...

"What is rule number six?" Trowa's voice spoke up calmly moving Heero's hand away and taking hold of Duo's face to turn him toward himself.

"To... to call if... if one has to stay late at work..." again Duo gulped softly now fully understanding what was going on.

"And what have you to say for yourself, Maxwell?" Now it was Wufei's hand under his chin and his eyes that were boring into his soul. "I suggest you to find a good enough excuse or else..."

Shaking his head as if to clear his mind and escape from the hand holding his chin Duo pushed himself back on the couch, only now trying to find a way out of the cuffs still imprisoning his wrists. "I... I was about to finish my report on our last case when Zechs called me in his office."

He could still remember entering their office not late than 16 hours ago and hear the clear and calm voice of Colonel Marquise saying "Vice Minister Wickens has found our spy in his office, Agent Dust was forced to high tail. We have to put someone in there quick enough or we will lose him. He is implicate, he is into this head straight. But we lack proof."

_/Flashback/_

_Stepping inside the office Duo struggled to find the chair and plopped himself in it rather unceremoniously. "So, what's up Zechs?"_

_"Vice Minister __Wickens has found our spy in his office, Agent Dust was forced to high tail. We have to put someone in there quick enough or we will lose him. He is implicate, he is into this head straight. But we lack proof."_

_Duo hadn't follow the case having been concentrate on one of his own, but was vaguely aware that it revolted around kidnapping and rape victims. Zechs asked him to work an extra shift and he of course accepted, Quatre's birthday was fast approaching and Duo knew he needed more money to buy the antique book he had seen for his friend. _

_"And that has to do with me, why?"_

_Zechs sighed rubbing his face, equally tired as his young agent/friend. "Do you know anything about the L3 traffic?"_

_"You mean the high traffic problem on the colonies?" he frowned not understanding what car problems had to do with him. _

_Snickering the tall blond shooks his head "I meant the drug traffic, Duo." standing up he walked around his desk to stand in front of Duo. "I know you are tired, you have been pushing yourself too hard Duo."_

_"I know," sighing he rubbed again tiredly at his eyes "But Q's birthday is in a few days and I found the perfect gift for him."_

_"Only that it cost too much?" Zechs shook his head sadly amused "I would have lend you the money Duo, without working yourself to the grave. What are the others saying about it?"_

_Laughing tiredly the braided agent looked up at his commanding officer "You know better than me that they were occupied with cases. Q is working himself harder than me so he didn't notice, Fei and Heero have been with Relena to that conference on L1," frowning he realized that his two friends would return later that night. "And Tro has been on double shift here and at the hospital searching for that drug thief."_

_"Meaning, no one noticed you have been working like a maniac for the past two weeks?"_

_"Meaning I've wrapped up the six cases I had to finish, twenty two report to write, and started at least two cases on forgeries and credit card thieves."_

_Zechs leaned back against his desk sighing "I shouldn't ask you of this then."_

_"You need me, and I don't mind." Another shrug "But if you want to give me two days off after this I wouldn't complain too much." his grin spread all over his face, should he wrap it in a couple of days and having the next two off he would be able to organize the best surprise party for Quatre._

_"If I assign you on this case you won't be able to call one of them for back-up."_

_Wincing at that the young man stood up and began to pace. "How long would it take?"_

_"Wickens has his men pick up the victim from the club in the night, he has his fun with them for a couple of days and drop them off dead on the third or forth." he sighed "We just need for him to pick you up. A couple of hours the most."_

_"And what if he doesn't pick me?"_

_Sighing again Zechs returned to the back of his desk pulling out a roll of pictures and showing them to Duo. Every single one of them had a young looking boy with dark long hair in it. "They are the victims." Duo looked up at Zechs when he said that. _

_"Where are they now?"_

_"As I told you before." the older man close his eyes tiredly "seven of them had their proper burial done. The last three are still here at the morgue."_

_Shivering lightly Duo returned to look at the boys in the pictures. He could easily pass for one of them, in fact those eyes and smiling faces looking back at him were forcing memories of his past to resurface. "What can I take with me?"_

_And so he accepted._

_/End flashback/_

He looked up at his three companion and sighed tiredly "I didn't have time to contact you, and you couldn't came and help me..." he shifted uncomfortably on the couch, his arms were starting to hurt because of the cuffs and of course the fact he had a bullet in his shoulder didn't help at all. Nor the knife wound on his left side nor the lacerations that Vice Minister enthusiasm in bed had caused. He shudder forcing those thoughts away from his mind, locking them away as nothing but another bad experience of his life. Another one.

"You are hurt." Duo's eyes quickly went up to Trowa's whose statement caught him off guard. "And before you start searching for one of your lies that is not a lie but is an half truth... I suggest you relent. You are already in a bad enough position."

"Trowa..." he tried but a sigh from behind the couch had him tense up involuntary. Only to relax when he recognized the voice.

"I've set the kitchen table, if you could hurry up. We are already late." Quatre's face was obviously unhappy, and Duo know that he was at fault there. He had worried his friends and now they were going to...

He frowned not really understanding the part with the kitchen table and the fact that Quatre was dressed in a tux. Then Relena's call came back to his mind and he sighed, of course they were late for her party. Groaning he sat up a little straighter ignoring the ache in his lower body. "Alright... I'm going to dress, be back in five minute, if you could remove those..." he looked up pleadingly at his three Preventer partners only to find the scowls back in their faces. "...uhm...what have I done now?"

"You are hurt Duo... where do you think you are going?" Heero moved forward and picked him up bridal style.

"But Relena..."

"Will understand," Wufei walked quickly before them showing Duo his cell phone, "She was in with us from the start, it was her that informed us where you were."

Frowning, Duo didn't protest – much -– when they brought him into the kitchen and set him on the table. Only then realizing what Quatre meant by having set the table. A soft blanket was laid over the wooden surface and a sterile sheet has been placed over it, making it warm and soft to be laid upon.

Heero sat him on the edge of the table and kept his hands on his waist to steady him. Wufei was rolling forward a cart with medical paraphernalia on top and Trowa was washing his hands in the sink. While Quatre was watching him with eyes full of sadness and concern. Gulping softly he tried to escape those baby blue eyes watching him, tried to hide pressing his face in Heero's broad chest, but it was impossible.

"Why did you accept this mission, Duo?"

"Quat..." he whimpered and Heero's arms tightened around his body, letting him know he was safe there.

"It's a simple question Duo, you knew what kind of mission it was. Why did you accept it?"

Shutting his eyes tight the braided man refuse to answer or looking back at his blond friend. He accepted without protesting as Heero gently laid him down on the table. His wrists were still locked behind his back so it was really useless for him to protest anymore. He just hoped Trowa would stop his check at the two obvious injuries. He was glad though of Heero's strong arms that were keeping him from being completely flat on his back. His wrist would seriously hurt if he had to press them down with his body.

Scissors were used to remove his jacket and shirt, and Wufei with Quatre's help began removing his pants. Licking his suddenly dry lips the former pilot of Deathshyte keep reminding himself those hands belonged to his friends and they weren't going to hurt him, much.

Trowa eyed the injured man on his table with something akin to concern. Not that he was willing to let it show on his face but still Duo was as much as a younger brother to him as if they were truly blood related. Moving his expert hands over his body he frowned noticing quickly the two obvious injures. A nasty stab in his side, not very deep but still in need of a pair of stitch and a bloody shoulder. He hissed softly when it was clear the bullet was still inside.

"Damn it." he grumbled softly making haste to check on Duo moving the hand scanner quickly over his upper body feeling his own hands trembling with concern. He had taken a liking on medical division as soon as the war ended. Even when he traveled with the circus he had always liked taking care of the others, and during the war he was the one appointed at sewing and healing his fellow pilots back to health.

It has been obvious when they all were forced to go back to study by the Govern that he would choose medicine as his field. And thanks to his training as a pilot and mercenary and thanks also to Sally Po, what other people studied in years Trowa got in just a couple, and now was in fact a doctor. A field doctor, as he prefer since he was still a full time agent doing shift at the Preventer clinic as well.

"I need to take him to the hospital. I can't operate here." his voice was calm and soft as he spoke to Heero on his left. The former Wing pilot was still holding Duo down, not with any actual force as the younger man had all but stopped his struggling. "His pulse is getting a little weak, pressure is dropping and his blood is still dripping out of him. I don't like his tempt as well, is slightly elevate. And that bullet needs to be removed."

Heero nodded his acceptance not taking his eyes away from Duo. The braided man had his eyes close and it was obvious to him as well that his breathing was starting to get swallow. "Alright, Relena will understand."

"No." Duo's eyes snapped open searching for Heero's making the former Wing pilot sigh softly knowing what was going to happen now. "I can survive with a bullet in my shoulder for a little bit longer. You go, she was looking forward to this party..."

"And who's gonna stay here and watch you die from blood loss?" Wufei has been on Trowa's other side the whole time helping moving Duo and handing over instrument for the tall pilots to conduct his check up. "Don't be a baby and grow up, you are going to the hospital and that's it."

"Sally would not be happy 'Fei." struggling to get up Duo sighed as Heero decided to help him pulling him against his chest. "and she is already there for certain. You should be there too, Relena won't mind if I'm not with you but she will be hurt if Heero and Quatre are not there, as well Sally would be if you and Trowa aren't."

"Sally will understand, you are injured."

"And she will feel the need to came and check me over herself, Tro." he smiled up tiredly at them "After all, am I not in detention? Have you not arrested me for breaking the house-rules?"

"Nh," Heero looked down at him shaking his head silently "do you want us to leave you here alone as punishment for your misbehavior?"

"And why not?" Duo forced a grin on his lips "I will rest, sleep a little and regain a little bit of strengths. After all you can't operate me without anesthesia."

Trowa leaned over to be at the same level with his eyes "And that's probably why I want to take you to the hospital asap."

"But... you could..." Duo frowned trying to shift slightly without wincing "go there, make Relena happy for a little bit. Make Sally happy as she would show her fiancé and her favorite pupil around and then you can tell her and came back here to take me."

"Or we could take you to HQ, Heero and Wufei could go to Relena's and drive Sally there to operate you." Quatre spoke up from his corner.

"Trowa can operate me." Duo said softly looking up at the still close Heavyarms pilot. "You don't have to ruin Sally's good time..."

Wufei smiled at his friend and ruffled his head "She won't have it any other way Duo, and you know it." then he frowned resuming his stern look "And you need one of them to sign you out of duty."

That has Duo about to protest but Heero's look stop him with his mouth open and no word to suffice his rant. The Japanese pilot turned to Trowa "Can you operate him alone?"

"I would prefer Sally to be there, I don't like to work with unknown doctors, the anesthetists always end up asking way to many questions when the patient woke up in the middle of the operation..."

Rolling his eyes Heero looked down at their injured friend "Have they not found a way to keep him under without hurting him?"

"Between you and him, Sally has found the perfect cocktail." Trowa almost grinned and then bent down again to look at Duo placing a cool hand on his forehead and frowning. "Fever..."

The former Wing pilot cursed softly and turned to Quatre "You and Wufei go and bring Sally to HQ, Trowa and I will take Duo there." then back to Trowa who was using the manual scan to check on Duo status "You are ready to help him, aren't you?"

"I am, and you can help me prep him there for Sally's arrival. Quatre can fill her in while driving her to the theater and take the full burnt of her rage..." he smiled at his blond lover from across the table, which Quatre answered with a sigh.

Heero was still looking at Duo not happy with the situation. "Let's go." he said picking up his best friend from the table.

"Uh, guys?"

Everyone turned to look at Duo safely enclosed in Heero's arms. "Can you remove the cuffs, they are truly cutting my circulation." he smirked weakly at the reddening of everyone's cheeks.

GW1X2x3x4x5x4x3x2x1WG

Wufei and Quatre were taking the steps to the castle in a hurry, neither of them has spoken much during the drive to the party. Both too worried about their braided friend to really spend time to voice their concern or fear. But before they could step inside the main hall Wufei placed a hand over Quatre's shoulder turning him over.

"What did you sensed?"

Frowning the blond tried to understand the request, ready to dig into the room on the other side of the door they were standing at, ready to pick up any different feeling coming from there. But his chinese friend was smiling softly and shaking his head slowly. "Why did you ask Duo about the mission."

"Oh," Quatre turned back to face the door a pained look crossing his face "I asked mostly because of his emotion, he was panicking."

"Why is that?"

Quatre wasn't sure how much he could tell Wufei without arising suspicious. During the past years since the end of the war his Space heart had became stronger and evolved in full empathy. He could now control his "gift" most of the time, even influence the people around him by projecting his own emotion into them.

Of course he was still experimenting with that, not really understanding how well and how strong his "gift" was.

"Has he told you something about his past?" Quatre tried to dodge the question the best he could, after all this was Duo's secret to tell.

Wufei snorted softly and turned back the blond man to face him "Should I remind you rules number seven?"

_Rules #7 – Honesty at all cost to each other_. Quatre sighed and shook his head, he didn't want to break any of their rules, but he didn't even want Wufei to worry about his empathy or about Duo's secrets if Duo hadn't told him before.

"What I meant, Quatre, is that rule number seven meant Duo and I have talked about our pasts." his black eyes shine with amusement "So, to answer your question, yes Duo told me about his life as a street kid and what kind of life was there for those like him."

Quatre sighed and shrugged at the same time "If you knew and if you know the mission, then you can understand why I asked him that."

Wufei nodded "But I wanted to know if you caught something from him that would..."

"Let's talk about this later, 'Fei. Now we need to take Sally to Duo and we are losing time." Quatre smiled sadly at him and Wufei let the matter drop for the moment. Both of them knew that discussion was far from over, but priority wanted the good Doctor to rush at their friend's side and that talk could wait.

No soon they walked into the hall that Sally was walking toward them, a frown marking her face as she took in the number of their party. "Wufei, Quatre." she smiled a little tiredly "Do I want to know where the other three are?"

"Probably you don't," Quatre smiled and looked around the hall spotting Relena in the far corner speaking with a couple of diplomats "but Wufei here will tell you everything, I'm going to say hello to Relena, and I'll meet you in ten by the car."

Quickly the blond move away and Wufei could only hiss a curse in his mother tongue and a stern "Winner!" in his direction before he was left alone with his girlfriend which by now was suspecting what was to came. Sighing he motioned for her to walk over the side of the door. "Duo was hurt during a mission, Trowa and Heero are taking him to your realm as we speak."

"How severe?" She tensed up as soon as he began to speak and now her mind was totally in motion ready to face whatever problem it was. Her heart was tugging in her chest, worry lacing her emotion for the smallest of the pilots. "And what mission are we talking about? He had the day off today."

"He did, but yesterday before he could return home Marquise asked him for a solo mission." the name was growled involuntary, but Wufei wasn't too concerned about it, he should have called for backup, or let Duo call for it. At least they should have let him call at home to warn he would be late and not to make them worry so much.

Sally's eyes narrowed and she turned to watch the crowd trying to spot the familiar long haired man among the people. "He sent Duo because,?"

"Vice Minister Wickens and his ring of street children." he supplied without remorse knowing full well that Sally's anger would stop in front of nothing to kick the blond's ass.

"I will deal with him later," she turned to him anger making her body vibrate and her voice drop a few tone. She was angry but Duo was hurt and she hadn't forgot about it. "Can you tell me how severe are his injury?"

"Trowa said a not so deep gash on his side and a bullet wound in his shoulder, the bullet is still inside and he was going to prep him for you."

Nodding she was already out of the door and asking a valet for her car. "Nothing else?"

"Can't tell you about his vitals but he said fever was kicking in." he looked behind his back at Quatre's approach "And he knows something more about his psyche."

Sally turned to Quatre at once and the blond took an involuntary step back. "Speak."

"I can't be sure Sal," Quatre sighed walking over the car that was brought back front for them "He was tired, afraid of something." he shrugged "Obviously in pain and still struggling to find an explanation to give. He felt almost," he frowned searching for the words "as if he was guilty about something."

"More than breaking our rules?" Wufei piped in from the driver seat, they were taking Sally's car, leaving their own back to Relena's sure that she would sent it at the hospital for them a little bit later.

Quatre seated in the back nodded "He wasn't thinking about the rules before we mentioned them to him." shaking his head "Sal, can you make sure he is..."

"I will check him over as soon as I remove that bullet." She trusted Trowa's judgment, he was her best man in the field and in the hospital. But he was too attached to Duo to even think about the possibility of his brother having suffered at the hands of their perp. "Who's gonna stay with him this time?"

She knew about the rules, granted she didn't know them by heart like they did, but she was aware of their existence. If she wasn't wrong rule _#16 _was _Never leave one in the hospital without supervision (especially if he is unconscious). _After Wufei has semi-destruct a part of her hospital and almost killed a too solicitous nurse they had decided that once one of them ended up in the hospital the others would take turn to stay with him constantly. And of course Sally has supported this decision of theirs creating a whole wing (courtesy of Quatre's money) appositely for them, training nurses and technicians to the best of their capacity to take care of the five of them, and Une and Zechs if necessary.

"I think Heero won't be moved from his bed." She sent a quick glance at Quatre smirking softly at his words. He shrugged curling his lips upward as well "They are still trying to hide their feelings but even Une knows they are madly in love."

"She knows and she has an hard time to assign the two of them together the last mission." Sally sighed leaning against her seat "They are good with you but when assigned together they always put stunt that are really not necessary to protect each other."

"That's why you changed me as Duo's partner?" Wufei throw a sidelong glance at his fiancée. "Wouldn't Barton be better?"

Shaking her head Sally smiled again "Trowa's too involved with Duo as well." she winked back at Quatre that smiled even more "It's not secret that he consider Duo his younger brother, he wouldn't be a perfect partner for him."

"But I argue constantly with Duo."

"Yet you respect his judgment and know when to step down from taking all the decisions."

Wufei sighed knowing what Sally was saying was true, then Quatre piped up "And you know Duo can take care of himself when needed."

He conceded their victory by nodding his head and sighing loudly as the Preventer Hospital Entrance came into view.

GW1X2x3x4x5x4x3x2x1WG

Heero maneuvered Duo through the door and into the stretcher Trowa had brought to them, laying him down with care he couldn't help but stroke a couple of curly hairs away from a over heated face. "Where to, Trowa?" looking up at the tall doctor Heero followed him toward the hospital wing reserved to them.

"I'm going to book a theater for us, and take some items," Trowa was already giving orders to the two nurses in charge of the wing. "Heero, can you help him put this on?" he was already showing in his hands the sterile gown and plastic cap for the surgery.

After a short nod from Heero, Trowa went away to prepare himself and give final instruction to the nurses, leaving the two alone.

Looking down at the now panting pilot of Deathscythe the Japanese Preventer let out a soft sigh. "Duo," he bend down slightly "Duo, do you hear me?"

Cracking one eye open the branded man licked his dry lips "I hear you..." he smiled weakly "and I see you. What can I do for you?"

Smiling Heero shook his head "Stay still and relax, I'm going to remove your clothes."

"Heero," Duo frowned "I didn't know you were such a pervert to do it in a Hospital."

Sighing and and again shaking his head Heero began the slow motion of removing his friend's clothes. "You are lucky I'm not Wufei."

"If you were..." a slight cough "Wufei, I wouldn't say it."

"So your horrible sense of humor is reserved only for me, I'm so lucky."

Duo let out a weak chuckle and slowly reach with his hand to grasp Heero's in his "Thanks."

"You are still in detention, Maxwell. Don't forget it." Bending down the former pilot of Wing surprised the both of them leaving a small kiss on the other's forehead. "Now let's put this fancy cap on."

The joke served to break Duo out of the shock the kiss produced "I feel so stupid each time I have to wear it."

"Then why do you insist on being hit every mission?" Heero smirked helping his friend placing all of his hair inside the cap and then throwing over his body the bareback gown to cover him. "Cold?"

Shivering Duo nodded and smiled softly with his eyes half closed as Heero covered him with a blanket. "What's my punishment gonna be?"

"I think staying in the hospital as long as Sally wants is going to be punishment enough." Heero smiled "But you know the others might have other ideas."

Sighing Duo turned to look at the still closed door "I wonder why is taking so long for Trowa to came back." he shivered again "And why I feel so much like crap. It's not the first time I got shot but I never felt so cold before."

Shrugging Heero placed his hand over the other's forehead "Probably because you have a fever, were you feeling alright before the mission?" he lifted one eyebrow at this, should Duo reply negatively he would have broken yet another rule of theirs.

"No," sighing he forced his eyes open to look back at Heero "I was fine, tired but fine." he frowned "Why do you think I feel like this now?"

Shrugging again Heero sat on the side of the gurney musing over the event of the day "Trowa will tell us, he took your blood to be examined in the lab."

"That's probably what's taking so long." scratching the tip of his nose he made a face "Neh, 'Ro... how is your last case going? Do you think you're going to wrap it soon?"

"Nh," looking down at him Heero has to wonder at Duo's ability to jump from one discussion to the other, loosing himself by studying the too bright violet eyes he was almost startled when Trowa came back inside the room. "his fever is getting worse."

"I expected it," Trowa moved closer to the gurney shooing Heero away and taking his place before listening to Duo's chest and taking his temperature. "Your blood sample came back with traces of a toxin we couldn't identify. I suspect your fever is induced by it." looking at the thermometer in his hand he frowned "Luckily is almost gone, this fever is just an effect of it and blood loss."

"The anesthesia won't cause any damage?"

Looking up at Heero, Trowa nodded his head "We have analyzed it and we can exclude reaction against the anesthesia."

Snorting the braided man remind them of his presence "So... can we go yet? I want to sleep, and sincerely my shoulder is hurting a little..."

"For you to admit it, it must hurt a lot." standing up Trowa went to the cabinet across the room and picked up a bottle of solution and rolled closer an IV stand. "You know the drill, this needle goes in and you will not remove it until I say so."

Rolling his eyes Duo offers his arm up at the taller man "I'll be good, I promise." he smiled at Heero "See how he treat me every time?"

"Your fault to make him work so much."

Trowa snorted in amusement at Heero's sentence and quickly insert the IV inside Duo's vein taping it down to hold it still. "This will help you relax and take some of the pain away. Let me know when it start to take effect, alright?"

"Alright, Tro?" Duo's eyes sought his and the doctor came back to sit beside him "How's your case with the drug thieves going? Are you gonna finish it soon?"

Looking back at Heero with a confused frown Trowa shook his head "No Duo, I don't think is gonna wrap soon. It came to my desk only three days ago. I dare say at least a couple of week. Why?"

With a tired yawn the braided pilot shrugged "I wanted to do something, that's all." tired violet eyes sought Heero's blue ones "Same as for you 'Ro?"

"Nh, same for me." walking closer again he frowned down at him "Wufei and I will escort Relena to L1 and then L4 for her new batches of conferences."

"Oh! Yes," he remember now Heero telling him about those plans four days ago when he was planing the roaster for their kitchen duties at home. How came he has forget it, he wasn't sure. He wanted to ask them to came with him to L2, he needed to go there because during his mission with the corrupt Vice Minister he had discovered that things on his colony were getting worse by the day.

Preventers have open a new division there, but Vice Minister Wickens has told him, believing him to be another kid from the streets, that many of his harem came from the lowlife of L2. He really didn't want to broke rule #8 again but he couldn't wait for them to finish with their missions. And Quatre was always so busy it wouldn't be right to disturb him, but maybe...

The last thing he remember seeing was Heero's cobalt blue eyes looking down at him with concern, then sleep overcame him and everything got dark.


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMERS: I don't own anything... Please don't sue me for I can't afford to pay for any legal assistance.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I thank you all that took the time to read the previous chapter, especially those that encouraged me to keep writing this story. I can assure you this story will be finished, the draft is already done I just need to add the final touches and embellish it a little bit.

A.N.2: Even if the draft is done I'm always open to suggestion. Please feel free to drop a int or a question, it gives me insight and let me judge what is the best way to follow and finish the story. Thank you.

A.N.3: Thank you so much to those that reviewed this story: **Ladybug Oblivion, BP, wind dancer 1981, snowdragon**. Your words means so much to me, thank you. To **Sirosie**: I don't know what a fanfiction on question is, if you explain it I may be interested. To **Lunar G** I would really love to have you correct my grammar mistakes. Thank you all!

chapter 2

*_#02 – Stop running and hiding, face your fears with the others_*

When Duo came around again he was surrounded. All four pilots were sitting or leaning against the wall beside his bed. Trowa was the only one standing close to his head, in his hands he was holding what the braided agent believe to be his chart.

"Seems like you're going to live." the monotonous voice of the agent slash field doctor was like a balm to his ears.

Smiling to himself and feeling his eyes drop a little bit the braided man relaxed in his bed before frowning again and turning to Heero seated close to the bed on the opposite side than Trowa. "This mean I am still on report?"

"So it seems." Heero looked behind his shoulder to Wufei leaning against the wall, arms crossed before his chest and head slightly bend toward his chest, apparently lost in his thoughts.

Feeling the weight of Heero's gaze on him the chinese agent open his eyes and fixed them to Duo "You are hereby sentenced twelve days of paper duty after you are released from here."

With a groan Duo tried to pull himself up "Aw, came on Wu... I'm not so bad." he turned his eyes to Trowa silently begging him to help "Honestly! I feel good."

"You just came out of surgery, there was a kind of drug in your system that we don't recognize and you lost enough blood to win yourself a two night stay in the hospital." Trowa kept his friend from sitting up by placing his palm over his chest, then once he felt him relax and lay back he took his pulse and checked his breathing. "How do you feel?"

"I told you," Duo sighed looking away while Trowa listened to his chest "I feel fine."

Quatre coughed softly looking at him with a frown "Try again mister."

"Sleepy?"

A snort then and the blond stood up from the chair he had been sitting on to walk close to the bed "Close enough but still not right."

"Sleepy and tired?" Duo tried to give his friend his famous puppy dog's eyes but Quatre was the only one immune to them, probably because his set of puppy eyes were far worst than his. "Alright, I feel a little weak, tired and sleepy. But I will be better in my own bed."

Heero snorted then and walked over to the door "Twelve days of pushing paper and two night stay, Duo." He went out of the door without another word leaving the patient puzzled as to where he had gone.

"Sally wanted to know when you'd wake," Trowa explained softly adjusting his pillow and rearranging the blankets over him. "We have been lenient with you, twelve days plus two are nothing compared to what we wanted to give you."

Duo gulped and turned to Quatre with grateful eyes "Thank you,"

"Don't thank me, it was Heero that pleaded your cause not me. I wanted to ground you for a month." With a shrug the blond walked back to his chair. But before Duo could question further the door of his room open again and Sally came inside together with Heero and Zechs.

"What is he doing here?" Trowa has to place a restraining hand over Wufei's shoulder as the chinese wasn't very happy with the former pilot of Epyon at the moment.

Zechs stood calmly just inside the door and nodded to the people there in greetings before turning to the bed "I asked you,"

"And I was fine," Duo smiled weakly at him "It didn't hurt so much."

"I can see how fine you are." the older blond growled and turned a sharp look around the room "Everyone but Sally and Duo, out of this room."

Four voices start to protest but Duo's shushed them all "Do as he said."

"What?" Wufei walked quickly to the bed "Rule #7! Duo, do you want to break another rule?"

"No, I will tell you later." the braided boy smiled up tiredly at his friend "But not right now Wu. I promise to, but later." trying to squeeze his friend's hand Duo turned his eyes over to Sally. "Hello nice looking but scary lady."

"Une is en route to came here." replied the doctor nodding to her pupil and the others pilots to walk out of the door "Speak quickly, we don't have much time" she asked once the door closed behind the last of the Gundam pilots. She thanked Zechs as he pushed the documents from the case in her hands. It seems while Duo was in surgery they had found something serious.

Only then did Duo start remembering more, during surgery he had woken up – per usual – screaming, the memories that until that moment were blocked were resurfacing. Before she put him under again Duo demanded to her for an urgent debriefing.

"Dorothy was there." Duo struggle to pull himself up in a seated position and Zechs hurried to help him.

"Are you sure?"

He eyed the blond doctor with annoyance, grateful for the help and sending a quick and tired smile in Zechs direction "Positive."

"So she is into this. Did you find something else?" Once Duo was seated Zechs took the vacant chair beside the bed while Sally sat on the bed. The braided doctor took his chart to read the last annotation made by Trowa while listening to her agent explanation.

"As you expected," knowing the two older soldiers in front of him would understand his reluctance he went head on of his oral rapport "The Vice Minister was one of the many high profile in this. From what I could hear, since I was blindfold at the moment at least three other politician are involved" He tried to force his tired mind to tie the voices he had heard to the people he knew.

"Don't force yourself, Duo. It will came to you." Sally smiled when he turned to look at her and nodded encouragingly to go on.

"I was taken from the bathroom of the club around ten hundred pm. A blindfold and a pair of leather cuff was used to subdue me." he shudder "A large ball gag was forced on me as well." Of course he had let them take him, a pair of handcuff and a blindfold weren't match for a former gundam pilot.

Sally moved her hand over to his wrist silently monitoring his pulse. He was annoyed by this but didn't voice it knowing full well she would just ignore him.

"I was taken to a van outside, no one tried to stop us even thought I believe we walked out of the main entrance, after a twenty minute ride we arrived at the destination." he bite hard his lower lip "I didn't know what place it was, but there were many kids there. I couldn't see them of course, but I heard them whimper and some were pleading openly. It was then that I heard those voices."

He took a deep breath "The kids, those speaking, where from L2 I would recognize that dialect everywhere. And then I heard Dorothy Catalogna." he looked up at Zechs "I heard her voice and for a brief moment when they removed my blindfold to show those men" he spat the last words then turned around "my eyes, I saw her. I'm not sure she saw me, it's quite possible she did and recognized me."

"It would explain how you were discovered." Sally mused aloud gently stroking the pulse she was holding in her fingers.

"It could, but why did they drag me to the Vice Minister?" that was a puzzle for Duo, if they knew who he was why take him to the house where the Vice Minister could be recognized and charged? "Unless..."

"Unless he was framed or they didn't need him anymore." Zechs said nodding his head "Perhaps the agents we sent to him were enough for his associated to decide to dump him."

"Do you think he could be framed?" Sally frowned, Duo's pulse was accelerating way too much for her taste, his breathing was also going up a notch and the bright red spot on his cheeks were another signal. Still they needed the information, she would let him rest later.

"No, he was dumped, but not framed." Duo had to take a deep breath before continuing "he was searching for a plaything, I heard him say that."

"We can still arrest him for children abuse and if DNA confirm it also for their deaths"

"Can't we ask for hs coll'bor'tion?" Duo's speech was becoming slurred by the minute and both Sally and Zechs frowned at each other.

"Not as for now. Duo, do you remember something else? Something that should give us some lead to investigate?" Zechs was sincerely sorry to press his young charge this way but they needed this information, and should Une step into the room before they had everything wrapped he would need to repeat it again.

"Th're w's n man..." his eyes were getting heavier by the minute and he was struggling to keep his eyes open. The door burst open and in came both Heero and Quatre looking ready to murder them for tiring their friend that way.

"Yuy! Winner!" Zechs growled pulling himself to his full eight to face the two angered pilots "Couldn't you two wait a little more."

"Couldn't you two wait till he was more rested?" Heero didn't even denied Zechs of a glare as he pushed his way to the bedside. "Duo?"

"Mhm...He'ro?"

"Yes it's me, it's ok Duo. You can rest now." The great former pilot of Wing was smiling one of his rare smile, looking worriedly at his friend. He waited until he saw the violet eyes of his friend slip shut before swirling around and pinning Sally with his heated gaze.

"We needed his statement." was her only reply before Une stormed inside the room Wufei and Trowa hot on her hells.

"A statement that couldn't wait for me to arrive?" Une glared dagger at both her colleagues before softening as her gaze turned to the figure on the bed "How is he?"

Sally frowned checking the bandages on both his side and shoulder and nodding for Trowa to take his temperature. "Bullet wound to his right shoulder, knife wound to his left side, severe blood loss and concussions and lacerations," she hesitate a little avoiding the look of people around the room. "striped wounds on his back."

"Striped...?" Wufei frowned looking directly at his lover "Sal?"

"As if he was flogged." Sally murmured back lifting her gaze "I think they tried to force something out of him."

Zechs sighed "His mind is blurry, he spoke as if he was remembering each thing at the moment."

"Probably because he was." everyone turned to Quatre that blushed softly being in the middle of many heated gazes. "Duo felt like he was struggling to remember."

"How?" Une stepped forward and signaled to everyone to step in the next room and to Wufei, who was the last to came in, to close the door.

"He was drugged, remember?" Trowa looked over his friend through the window separating the two rooms "his fever is up a grade since last I took it."

Commander Une frowned and turned her gaze to Zechs "Brief them on the mission. It's only right they know." she turned to Sally "Do you think he would remember or should I sign him for therapy?"

"Should you sent him to therapy again he will quit, he said so last time." Sally shook her head "And I don't think he needs it. The memories are resurfacing on their own, whatever it was they give him it's slowly leaving his body."

Zechs took over then, explaining the other pilots what Duo went through and why, the mission parameters and the final goal. Everyone kept silent listening intently to what Zechs was saying. Heero soon found himself standing next to Trowa at the window, unconsciously caressing the glass separating him from Duo. The hailing man was slowly starting to whimper and trash weakly in his bed and Heero felt his heart constrict at every move and moan that escape the unusually pale form.

"Someone from earth is using L2 as recipient for curriers and..." Wufei frowned searching for a careful chosen word but nothing came to his mind.

"Sluts? Whores?" Heero turned to look at his chinese friend "They are taking the children from the streets to be used as dolls. Either for fun or to carry drugs out of the colonies."

"But isn't it difficult to have many children traveling from one colony to the other?" Quatre mused aloud replacing Heero at the window "Duo would put a stop to this, are you all conscious of this, right? He will..."

Une sighed massaging her temples as she felt an headache starting to form up "He will demand to have the case, he would fly up there and try to put a stop to it. " Looking at them she waved a piece of paper for them to see. "Yes, he has already requested it."

"When?" Four set of eyes turned to her and Une.

"I think it was when he first got the mission," It was Zechs that answered for the two ladies "He had forwarded it with a set delay of twentyfour hours." Passing one hand through his hair the tall blond stretched his back until it popped noisily "And he should be, he is the expert of L2 and its streets."

GW1x2x3x4x5x4x3x2x1WG

Duo woke slowly and once again the first thing he saw were Trowa's green eyes looking down at him with concern. Normally seeing Trowa first thing after wake up would start a long discussion, on Duo's part, with tons of jokes about a certain blond haired pilot that could get jealous. But not this time.

This time Duo knew without asking that something was wrong. "Your detention time has doubled." Trowa's voice filtered the fog that was currently residing in his mind. Blinking more than once the braided boy tried to make sense of the words he had just heard before giving up with a dumb "Uh?" as reply.

"Your two days stay here are now four." Trowa let his lips curl up in a faint smile watching his friend absorb the news and elaborating it in his brain before trying to sit up.

"What?" Duo was quickly pushed down against the mattress, the former pilot of Heavyarms simply pressing his open palm against his chest. "I did nothing, I was only sleeping! Why four days? What dumb load of deep shit is this?"

"The kind where you are sick and need to be monitored."

"Trowa!" Duo tried to look around, expecting to see the others but coming up with an empty room safe for Trowa sitting beside him. "You can monitor me at home."

"I can't, nor any of the others can." A shrug and then Trowa took his time checking his friend's vitals. "I've got a new case to work on."

"And Quatre?"

"He is on a case as well."

That was not a good news, Quatre didin't have anything till the other day, and Duo was puzzled by this. Then worried since only something serious could require Quatre's particular skills. "What's going on Tro?"

"I'm not at liberty to speak of Quatre's cases, I'm sorry Duo."

Giving up on that subject, knowing that his friend was right, Duo returned to their previous argument "And Wufei and Heero?"

"Guard duty with Relena across the colonies, have you forgot already?"

Trowa was carefully scribbling the result of his findings in Duo's chart, the fever has broke during the night, and he was glad that it hasn't came up again. Duo's vitals were getting back to normal, his pressure was still a little low but considering the amount of blood loss he wasn't worried about that.

"And what about...?" Duo frowned, suddenly there was a flash of someone in his memory. Something tied with his recent mission but he couldn't point a finger to it. A sudden pain hit his head forcing a hiss of discomfort slipping through his lips. Trowa was there, ready and demanding attention. But Duo couldn't really focus on him. A pair of blue eyes were looking back at him, a pair of eyes he had seen somewhere before.

He was sure he was forgetting something, or worse he knew he was supposed to remember something and couldn't bring his mind to wake up. The fog residing in his brain was closing up again and he was trying desperately to remember something, something important.

"Duo! Duo, answer me. Stay focused, Duo!" Trowa watched before his eyes as Duo's gaze became unfocused and then lost to him completely. It was as if Duo's mind was shutting off and he couldn't do a single thing to prevent it. He tried to shake him awake, slapping his face a couple of times, but Duo simply couldn't hear him. "Came on bro, look at me!"

But Duo was deep inside the memories, small bit were flashing onto his mind. Dorothy walking over to him smirking, demanding an explanation, the bite of the whip onto his skin, the pain of the flogging and then the touches. Those damned hands touching his body, his naked body.

And in the middle of all of this, the eyes. Kind, caring eyes yet proud and authoritative. Who was that person, and when did he met him before?

A slap on his cheek brought him back to the present, jerking him away from his mind. Blinking he touched his redden cheek finding yet again Trowa's eyes watching him full of concern. "Tro?"

"Praise..." with a sigh the young doctor sat heavily on the bed passing a trembling hand over his face "What the hell happened Duo?"

Once again the braided man could not help but look dumbly at his comrade saying "Uh?"

"You went blank on me."

"Uh, Tro?" he was puzzled not really grasping what the other was saying.

"Duo, we were talking and then suddenly you blanked out. What were you thinking?"

More flashes of memories came and he had to focus on Trowa's green eyes to keep himself centered to the present. "I..." he frowned and turned to the door the moment it opened and Lady Une came forward. "Ma'am."

Waving her hand a little the head of Preventers strolled into the room and took possession of the chair by his bed "Barton," she greeted with a nod in his direction then turned fully to Duo. "How are you feeling?"

This coming from the woman that signed his execution, who was now his boss and was keeping the peace fighting politicians with teeth and nails made Duo chest well up with warm feelings. Smiling he nodded his head "Better, not yet at my full capacity but I've had worse."

Turning to look at Trowa, Une tried to read confirmation to what he just said. And the doctor didn't disappoint her. "His fever broke this early morning, the blood pressure is still a little low but it's steadfastly returning to normal. No infection in either injuries."

"Good." She turned back to Duo who was pouting at their talking about him as if he wasn't in the room. "But there's something more, right?"

"He blacked out just a moment ago. We were talking about it the moment you came in."

Duo's pout increase of potency since Trowa kept talking as if he wasn't in the same room as them. Waving his healthy hand in the air he tried to get his attention. "I didn't black out."

"You did." Trowa fixed him with a stern gaze "I had to slap you twice to get you back to focus on me."

"You slapped me?"

"I just said so"

Duo was about to protest but Une stopped him clearing her throat slightly to get their attention. "What caused this black out?"

"I am not sure, as you can see he doesn't remember it." Trowa sighed shaking his head "I need to run some test before I can release him. And I need to talk to Sally."

Again Duo tried to protest but this time Une waved a hand in front of him, before nodding to Trowa "You go and talk to her, I'll stay here in your absence. I need to talk with Duo."

"But.." Duo didn't have time to protest that Trowa was already on his feet and walking to the door.

"Please keep him in bed, if you can try not to let him sit up." And with those last words the doctor was out of the room closing the door behind him.

Smiling Une turned to Duo "So, it seems it's just you and me for now. Care to tell me what you remember of the mission?"

Duo kept his troubled gaze to the door "Is this an official debriefing?"

"Only if you have to add something else to what you said yesterday."

"I am remembering... things." he shivered and turned to her "Une, I don't know why but I forgot many things." he lift his hand to brush his forehead with the tip of his fingers "I..." a sigh "I'm remembering now."

"Sally and Trowa think it's the drug they gave you." Une took the hand with the IV line in hers and squeeze it warmly "Do you want to talk about it? It'll not be official. I swore it."

"I think you should make it official." A sigh and then his lips curled up in a smile "But, maybe you can omit a few things, can't you?"

Laughing at his impish face she shook her head "I'm a very stressed woman, of course I can forget a few things while listening to tons of debriefing." She winked at him and he laughed.

"Alright," he frowned again and looked at her hopefully "I know Trowa said that I should not sit up, but... can you rise the bed a little bit? I feel really uncomfortable laying down while everyone is sitting or standing around me."

With a smile again the leader of Preventers helped him, while listening to his debriefing alternatively scowling and being shocked at his revelation. When he was done with the few memories he had regained Une was shacked to the core and the plans she had discussed the night before with the others were already being modified.

GW1X2X3X4x5x4x3x2x1WG

Quatre strolled into Preventers HQ like he owned the place, and it was almost true since he was paying a large sum of money every year to help maintaining the force.

Everyone working there knew about him, about his ability of planning things and his multibillionaire being. They also know that messing up with Agent Sand was out of option since he was a devil under guise of an angel. And everyone knew to stay away from him especially when he was in a foul mood, and watching him strode around and almost – almost – slamming things around was a good indication of his mood.

Both Zechs and Sally have been on the receiving end of his foul mood and both made sure not to cross his path if not strictly necessary. Zechs normally would have been luckier, having his office in the main building of the training facility he had less opportunities than Sally to meet him, but with Une away to the hospital, it was now his duty to act as the lead commander for HQ.

He didn't cringe, but he did groan when the smaller blond headed his way. "Quatre," he called tiredly massaging his neck and preparing himself for yet another tirade "what can I do for you?"

He was wondering how long Lady Une would be gone, wishing she would just hurry with Duo and return to take care of her others boys.

"Drop the formalities," Quatre close the door behind himself and pinned Zechs with a dark gaze "do you know where Dorothy Catalogna is?"

"If I knew, which I assure you I don't, I would have already sent a team to pick her up." sighing he stood up to face his former enemy "I want answers as well Quatre, Duo is a friend of mine as well as yours. I made a mistake sending him alone, but what else could I have done?"

"Call us for back up." Sandrock's pilot still glared dagger at the older man before taking a deep breath and forcing himself to relax "Sorry, that was uncalled for." sitting down on one of the chair in front of Zechs' desk he sighed deeply "My behavior was uncalled for, but it's not my fault. Well, not entirely."

"What do you mean?"

"It's my space-heart." he sighed rubbing his chest "I'm picking up the other's emotions and..."

"You can't stop yourself." Smiling Zechs went back to sit in his chair "Now I know why you are so angry. Still I ask you to forgive me. I do feel guilty for what happened to Duo."

"Not your fault." Quatre sighed again and looked up at him "Dorothy is your sister's friend, do you think...?"

"Relena knows about this case and about Dorothy, she has tried to contact her for me for the past 12 hours." He pulled a folder from the top of his desk and handed it to Quatre "I've already sent men to all her known addresses, I've her mobile under control, GPS system active, and every port and station has men with her picture."

"You can't arrest her,"

"I can't but I can interrogate her due to my man statement." He looked grimly "And trust me, I want to know why she was there."

Feeling himself relax even more Quatre nodded looking at the folder and studying the document inside, it was the case in its whole complexity. The plans, the studies done before the agents were sent, the agents sent and their profiles. Everything about the operation was there for him to study. And since it has taken priority over everything else, Quatre would take the folder home and study it the whole night if necessary.

"How's Duo?"

Looking up at Zechs the blond pilot shook his head "Trowa still doesn't know how to explain his black-out. Sally wants to keep him there for another couple of days, but Duo won't listen."

"How long has been?"

"Today is the fifth day of his hospitalization, he wants out and there's little Trowa or Sally can do to stop him."

Sighing Zechs stretched his long legs under the desk and massaged his temple while thinking at the whole situation. "What I don't understand is the state of the kids."

"What do you mean?" puzzled Quatre looked up from the file he was studying.

"Look at the last page of the folder, it contains the descriptions of the kids that Duo saved." standing up he walked around to be beside Quatre and help him turn the large amount of papers. "There," he pointed to the health charts of the kids.

"W..what does it means?" Quatre couldn't explain what he was seeing and why no one had told him before.

"Autistic. Almost every single one of those kids were autistic." Zechs frowned "That made things even worse."

"Almost?"

"Ten of those kids were... not autistic. Those were the kids engaged in sexual intercourse when we entered the building."

"And the others?"

"We don't know." Zechs sighed "Duo doesn't remember, and they can't talk. Or at least we haven't found a way to communicate with them."

"This is so strange," muttered Quatre "Strange and disgusting at the same time." shacking his head he stood up "I think I'll head home. Wufei and Heero should return later tonight."

"They just couldn't stay away, could they?"

"You joke, right?" Quirking a smile Quatre walked to the door "And expect my mood to be even worse tomorrow." laughing he walked outside leaving a muttering commander behind his back.

GW1x2x3x4x5x4x3x2x1WG

Une was standing to the side of the door, behind it Duo was being examined by Sally one last time before being discharged. In her hands she was holding the new mission plans for the braided man, and to her side Trowa was watching her with a scowl on his face.

"Don't look at me that way," she began crossing her arms in front of her "you knew he wouldn't stay."

"I don't see why you can't order him."

"Because he would refuse to listen, which would means I'll have to court martial him and this is the last thing I want to do."

"But we still don't know about his black-out,"

Une sighed again "I know, but the only thing I can do is give him in your care." she smirked "And assign Yuy and Chang to guard duty."

That had Trowa arch his eyebrow "Babysitter?"

"Nah," she smirked "more like Duo-sitter."

Feeling his lips curl up a little Trowa nodded "Sounds good, I will hand you the report on my drug-case tomorrow morning..."

"And you will be assigned as field doctor to your team as soon as you do it." Une had planned everything, Duo would not be left alone, especially not with the kind of case they had on their hands. Her boys would handle the case but she will do everything in her power to protect them the best. Looking at her watch she smirked "Yuy and Chang should land in a hour, enough time for you and Maxwell to return home."

A nod was her reply as Trowa was watching the door that was opening. Duo and Sally both came forward the first with a smug grin in his face and the latter with a fierce scowl. "Trowa!" Sally Po, grimly looking, stood before her young student "Keep him in bed as much as you can." She turned to Une "How long?"

Smiling Une turned to look directly at Duo "I heard you have been assigned to desk duty for twelve days." He muttered something under his breath and the commander continued talking ignoring him "This case is very delicate, Maxwell. I want solid proofs before I'd let you go to L2, and trust me I've all the shuttles ports notified that you are not to be allowed on board."

"But.."

"Give me information, rest up and get better and return to me with proofs and an healthy body and you'll find a Preventer Shuttle ready to take you there." She watched his eyes light up and quickly added "Fail to do it and I'll chain to the desk myself."

The smile she gave him had Duo shudder a little, clearly reminded of a time in their past when she had ordered him to die without a second thought. And who knows why but her gaze reminded him of the eyes he kept seeing in his memory of that place.

So lost in his thoughts about those eyes and their link to the Colonel Une of the past that he didn't even notice when Trowa forced him in a wheelchair and pushed him toward the exit. So many things to do, so many things to remember and such a short time to have.

But he was sure that those eyes were important and until his memories weren't back he had to conceded that the others may be right and he needed to stay behind a desk.


	3. Chapter 3

DISCLAIMERS: I don't own anything... Please don't sue me for I can't afford to pay for any legal assistance.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I thank you all that took the time to read the previous chapter, especially those that encouraged me to keep writing this story. I can assure you this story will be finished, the draft is already done I just need to add the final touches and embellish it a little bit.

A.N.2: Even if the draft is done I'm always open to suggestion. Please feel free to drop a int or a question, it gives me insight and let me judge what is the best way to follow and finish the story. Thank you.

A.N.3: I'm sorry for the mistakes I'm sure I made. I didn't have a beta for this story, I truly need one, if anyone is willing please write me a PM leaving me your email address so I can get in touch with you.

chapter 3

*_#03 – Speak your mind without fear of criticism_*

"Stay still!" Wufei growled for the tenth time moving to intercept Duo's legs from swinging out of bed. The braided pilot was not happy with the early arrival of both of his former comrades, Heero was yet to be seen in his room but Wufei had been with him since the minute they came back at home.

"Damnit Chang! I need my laptop, I need to do something and I don't need a babysitter, especially not you!"

"Too bad Maxwell, you need one and you got me and you'll rest as Trowa said!"

After dropping him home said pilot has gone back to the hospital, with drug dealers and drug stealing inside their main hospital center the Preventer were in a uproar and Sally was not happy. Someone was stealing from their pharmacy and still they couldn't track down the culprit. Of course Trowa was working into the building as a doctor, but being also an agent had him following the tracks and searching for the thief.

Trowa being so busy means that Duo had to stay under someone else supervision while abed, and Wufei was the designed Duo-sitter for the day.

"Chang! You have pocked me with your damned needles saying they would help. I've let you do it and now you have to let me up!"

"Acupuncture needs time and repeating the procedure before it's effective." Wufei bristled having had this conversation before. "And if you hated it so much you should have said that, I wouldn't have offered."

"You didn't leave me with a choice!"

"I offered and you said yes."

"You said it would help me heal quicker and hurt less so that I could get out of this damned bed!"

"I said that and I meant it, but helping heal does not mean heal immediately!"

"You lied to me!"

"I certainly did not!"

Before Duo could retaliate another voice cut in clearing his throat. Both turned to the door where Heero stood leaning against it, arms crossed and a dark scowl on his face. Duo yelped softly and Wufei smirked seeing him there, knowing which side the Wing pilot would take.

"Did he is still try?" The leader of their small group asked walking closer to the bed.

Wufei's smirk grow a notch and he nodded "He can try as much as he wants, I will not let him."

"Nh"

Duo growled under his breath cursing them both and turning around so to give them his back not wanting to be subjected to Wufei smirks anymore. Damn them for that, he felt fine and he didn't have any more blackout episode, so he didn't really see the need to keep him abed. A small hole in his shoulder or cut on his side hadn't ever stopped him before.

Heero and Wufei exchanged glance behind his back and sighed to each other, then the Wing pilot walked over to the bed and sat down "Fei, go I'll take over for now."

"Are you sure?"

Nodding Heero kept his eyes fixed on Duo's back, he didn't glance up when the chinese pilot walked out of the door, nor when he cursed as he tripped over one of the things that Duo previously thrown him in a fit. He simply sat there watching the other man with a soft smile on his lips.

"Are you done sulking?"

Duo tensed up more and buried himself under the covers, he didn't want to be kept abed, nor he didn't want a sitter. And if Wufei had been bad, Heero was ten time worse.

"Duo, stop this childish act..."

"Childish act! Ah!" Duo threw the covers out and turned to look at him sitting up "Who are you calling childish, eh?"

"You." Heero met the heated gaze with a calm one awaiting for the explosion he was sure to product.

"Me? Me!" Duo took a swing at his friend and tried to push past him, since his bed was pulled completely against the wall that side was the only one that permitted him to get off "Let me stand and I'll show you who's a child."

"Figure," sighed Heero standing up and easily avoiding the punches thrown his way. "You can't beat me when you are whole, how can you pretend to do it now that you are at you half?"

"I can beat you anytime I want you...you... dumbshit!"

"Calling names isn't truly grow up."

"Ah! And..." Duo had to think fast but nothing came up and he pouted turning his head to the other side. Heero watched him pout for a couple of seconds before chuckling softly and sitting down again beside him taking hold of the end of the braid.

"You have to understand Duo, that you were hurt..."

"WAS is the main word Heero" Turning around and facing the other man with a deep sigh "Why can't you trust me?"

"We do trust you Duo, but we worry for you." Heero smiled slightly and used the end of the braid to gently tip his friend's nose. "Trowa wants to be sure you are fine."

"But I am, Ro! I feel fine. I swore." he sighed silently enjoying the other uncharacteristic behavior. It wasn't unusual for Heero to act like that when they were alone, in fact the usually stoic man had open up quite a lot for him in the past few years. And Duo loved him even more for that, even if he had never found the courage to tell him.

"We still don't know what they gave you, and you are still missing a few hours of your stay in their hands. What if they did something to you and we missed it?"

Sighing softly Duo shook his head "It's not as if they hurt me... not too much."

"For what we know they could have poisoned you, hypnotized you or Gods forbid cloned you!" Heero was quickly coming to the end of his patience. Duo simply refused to see reason, and he couldn't let his foolish baka hurt himself.

For his part Duo simply shrugged "I was trained like you to sustain a lot of things during the war. No subliminal control can have effect on me, there are just a few poison that could kill me and neither of them are slow acting and G tried to clone me but wasn't successful. So..."

"G tried to clone you?" Heero was speechless at this news, not even J had dared so much. "How did he do it?"

"Are you deaf? I told you he didn't." Duo sighed smirking at his friend "You are losing your touch Heero."

"What did G do, Duo? He could have succeeded and you wouldn't know it." Heero was truly worried now "And why did he want to clone you in the fist place?"

Duo rolled his eyes "In case I was killed,"

"What?"

"Heero calm down, I wasn't killed. And I tampered with Deathshyte so much that only you apart for me would have been able to use it." Duo sighed rubbing his head tiredly looking up when the door opened and the other three walked inside. "Yo, Trowa can I get up now?"

"Nope." Trowa smirked and reached Heero's side "What were you talking about? We heard you shout."

"Nothing much," Duo hurried to answer before Heero did "We were talking about your idiotics idea to keep me abed while I am fine."

"Nh," The former pilot of Wing shook his head "G tried to clone him during the war."

A chorus of "What" erupted from around the three of them and Duo had to groan "Heero! I told you he never succeeded! I'm the only Duo Maxwell around here."

"We can't be sure about this!" Heero stood looking first at Trowa and then at Quatre surrounding the bed.

"Damn it," Wufei groaned "One Duo can give me an headache for a week, think what two or more of you can do!"

That phrase had even Heero smile amused, but strangely Duo was not laughing with them. "Didn't you all hear me? I wasn't cloned."

"G was a cunning bastard Duo," Trowa took the place vacated by Heero and took lazily Duo's wrist to check his pulse "better to be safe than sorry."

"And what if he had?" Duo frowned trying to pull away his hand from Trowa but the other pilot was just too strong. "Howard would have told me, and even if..."

"I'm going to call him." Quatre was already out of the door before Duo could finish his sentence or protest with his action.

Frowning even more the braided man threw a dirty look in the direction of the other three "I warn you," he growled and pushed his legs out of bed "Let me up, stop fussing and give me a laptop and a debrief on the case or I will start to use my knife on you."

Swiftly Trowa has his legs back on top of the bed, Heero had him pushed down on the mattress and Wufei was picking up gundanium cuffs to use to restrain him, the only material that could keep the God of Death from escaping. "Now Duo..." The Chinese man twirled the restraint in his hands "Are you going to be good or do we need to use those?"

"You wouldn't dare," growling deeply Duo tried to struggle against the other two "Damn you all, those are kidnapping kids, my kids!"

"They are not yours Duo," Heero pinned his partner with his own body, and with his free hand made to brush the hair from his face demanding his total attention "Those are not yours."

"They are from L2 'Ro," whined the trapped boy "they are mine, they are like me..."

"You are not like that anymore Duo," Trowa stroke gently the legs still in his hold "And you are helping many of those kids with your donations and the orphanages you have founded."

"Tro... they are, they are mine. I didn't save them."

"You did." Wufei seeing his friend calm down and on the verge of tears put down the restraint and moved to be in between Heero and Trowa "You helped create those foundation, the orphanages and the clinics. You are helping them even now, but you won't be able to do more if you don't help yourself first."

Sighing Duo felt his mind drift away again, Wufei's words pulling forth at something his mind was trying to remind him. A Ginger haired man kneeling in front of him, freeing his hands from his restraints. A pair of concerned eyes watching him with the same intensity of Heero's.

_"We have to go!" a female voice was shouting behind him, Duo was hanging by his wrists chained together to the ceiling of his cell. And a man was standing in front of him trying to break his chain free. _

_"I won't go without him!" the voice was like velvet, smooth and rich and deep and had something familiar in his timber. "He saved me, I will not run away without him!"_

_"Cousin!" A woman's voice came from behind the man, a very familiar one. _

_"Doro, you go ahead I will follow you later."_

_"They will kill you if they find..."_

_The man frowned as he finally freed one of Duo's hands "I'll fight them." then he turned around and smiled at the blond girl "You go ahead Doro, I will follow you. I promise..."_

_Duo tried desperately to follow their discussion but his mind was foggy and he couldn't seem to focus. Both their voices were familiar but he couldn't really place them. He groaned and the man turned sharply toward him placing two fingers over his lips. "Shush 02, don't make a sound or we'll be in deep danger."_

_That voice, he knew that voice he heard it somewhere before. _

_"Treize... we truly need to go, they are coming to get him..."_

_"Then we'll take him with us. Help me freed his other hand." Trize, that name sounded into Duo's mind like a bell, waking him slightly. _

_"A..Am I death?" he stuttered watching as Dorothy Catalonia came forward and started helping Treize freed him. It was surreal._

_Chuckly the ginger haired man look directly in his eyes "I fear you are not, you are very much alive and will regret it in the morning."_

_Morning? Was it already night? How many hours have passed, what was Treize doing alive, and was he truly alive or was Duo seeing a ghost? Confused as he was that he missed when his other wrist was being released and he was lowered down. _

_"02, Status!"_

_That voice again snapped him out of his stupor, he blinked up and was met with two very concerned and blue eyes. Eyes that weren't Treize, but..._

"He...heero?"

"Duo!" deep blue eyes were scanning his face inch by inch to make sure he was alright. The worry and concern was clear in Heero's face and the braided man felt himself melt under the protectiveness he saw there. "You are awake again,"

Not a question, Duo noticed but he was too tired to protest or even to try and say anything. But then suddenly he remember what his mind recovered for him and he sat upright like a bolt. "Kushrenada!"

Heero frowned even more worried, trying to push the smaller man to lie down again he hoped the noise they were making would make the others hurry up and return to their room. "Duo?"

"Heero, we...I... Kushrenada! I saw Kushrenada!"

"Duo, please calm down." Sighing in relief he heard the other three ran up to their room. "Kushrenada is death... you were dreaming in one of your fit..."

"My FIT, as you call them, are memories," Duo growled deeply hurt that Heero – out of everyone – would not believe in him. Even if he had to admit that he himself found it hard to believe what he just remembered. He sat up when the door opened and the other three came rushing inside.

"Duo!" Quatre sat gingerly on the bed silently pushing Heero away a little "You are awake at least, we were worried!"

"You are always worried," the braided man looked up at the Wing pilot with a frown "How long?"

"A little more than a hour." It was Trowa that answered sitting on the other side of the bed and taking hold of his wrist. "What was it?"

Immediately Duo's eyes sought Wufei and then rushed back to Heero for some help in delivery his news. "I..."

"I don't think it was a memory this time." Heero spoke coming to his help, or probably not since what he was saying. "He saw Treize Kushrenada."

Silence fell over the four pilots at the announcement and a quick game of exchanging glance began in between the four standing pilots. Something that made Duo angry "It was a memory!" feeling once again not taken seriously

Quatre was the first to recover and quickly patted his braided friend's blanket covered leg. "Of course it was a memory..." he used a tone of voice that Duo recognized almost instantly. It was the kind of voice used to calm a skittish animal, or fool a scared child.

"Quat, don't..." Duo growled turning completely to him "Don't try and fool me!" once again he tried to push himself up but Trowa was there and stopped him. "God damnit! Let me up from this bed!"

"Duo... calm down." Wufei spoke up for the first time and his tone of voice demanded attention. Every head in the room turned to him as he walked slowly to stand at the end of the bed. "I killed him, Duo. I saw him die...it's..."

"You saw his mobile suit explode!" Duo bit back without waiting for his friend to finish. "He was alive, Dorothy was with him, together they freed me! I was chained to the ceiling and they were running away, they saw me, they stopped and he went to unlock me."

Quatre rubbed his chest as if in pain, and in part it was true, Duo was hurting that no one of them believed him, and he was extremely sure of what he was saying. But it was impossible for Treize to be alive, or wasn't it?

He saw Trowa get impatient, it was difficult to say with his lover, but Quatre knew him well. He saw the skilled hands get ready and prepare a shot of something, probably some tranquilizer for Duo. Not that he truly believed the braided man but it does seems a little too harsh what Trowa was going to do.

"Duo, why don't you start from the beginning? What do you remember?" Wufei sat at the foot of the bed patting the covered foot there. Quatre was puzzled by this sudden change and together with what he saw Trowa doing he was starting to get angry on Duo's behalf.

Even Duo was suspicious of the change, he eyed Wufei carefully but the chinese didn't seem to be trying and play tricks with him. "I remember... I woke up in a cell, I was hanged by the wrists from the ceiling and my back was hurting, probably from the lashes I received before." he shivered at the memory. "The cell was cold, humid, water was spilling from a corner and I remember hearing the sound of mice scurrying around. I thought they would came and bit me, I was sure I would end up as mice dinner." again he shivered lost in his memory, the pain so real and the fear as well. The despair to be alone in his last instant and to have to go without a fight. Without a friend by his side, and without Heero knowing his feelings for him.

So lost was him in his memory and his despair that he didn't even feel the prick of the needle when Trowa injected him the sedative. "I... I was cold and then the door slipped open and I thought I saw a ghost. I asked him and... he..." his eyes became heavy with sleep as the drug started to make effect. "T..tro?" he turned to his friend shock evident in his face. "You...?"

"It's for your own good Duo. You needed..."

"I n'ded a f'iend!" hurt was plain in his eyes as he fought against the drug but he already know the battle was lost. "Y'll betr'ide me.."

"No! No Duo, no!" Quatre was quick to amend but already the violet's eyes were shut and slumber took their friend. Before he could crumble forward Trowa had him lowered back under the covers and checked him over to make sure he didn't re-open any wound.

"Well at least now he would stay calm." Wufei stood up stretching "I am worried about his willingness to believe his fantasies."

Quatre growled deeply in his throat and turned sharply to speak his mind but was beated up by Heero "And I'm worried about your luck of trust in him!"

The former Wing pilot stood from the bed and shot his two responsible friends murderous looks. "You just broke his trust... I hope you are happy when he will slip away to follow his heart."

"Heero! We needed to calm him down." Trowa stood as well matter of factly and approached his angry friend "His heart was beating too fast, he needed to calm down."

"He needed you to believe in him, more than you sedating him." Quatre stood as well moving to stand beside Heero "What you did was wrong, he was more hurt now than before!" he was vibrating rage when he finished hissing those last words and then without turning back he walked out of the room.

Heero simply shook his head and turned back, already trying to figure out how to believe Duo. Logically it would be impossible for Treize to be still alive. Where was until now? How could he survive such an explosion? Wufei saw him die, he killed the man. So actually it was believing Duo over Wufei and Heero felt guilty for doing so. Logically Duo had been through a traumatic experience, so he could be wrong. But, wasn't Wufei doing the same? Maybe his wish to see the man death had been far worse than his lucidity.

Shaking his head he went to his studio and started doing what he knew would calm him down, what could give him his security and understanding back. He began to work on his laptop and try to break once again into the facility videos that Duo and the other Preventers have just dismantled.

GWBOYS 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 SYOBWG

Quatre was so angry, so hurt on Duo's behalf that he locked himself into the kitchen to pace in total freedom. Aside from their rooms the kitchen and the bathroom where the only two room in the house to be able to be locked. To prevent the others from using the bathroom was out of question, and Quatre, even furious as he was, couldn't make himself do something nasty as this.

The kitchen thus was his actual sanctuary, the place where he was going to be left alone and to vent his frustration over what has took place upstairs.

How could Trowa and Wufei hurt Duo so was beyond his comprension but what was worse was the guilt he was feeling for not preventing them to do so.

The braided man would be hurt when he woke up next, and rightfully so. Quatre needed to find a way to ask forgiveness, something that Duo would recognize as such. Sitting down at the table the blond eagerly rubbed his chest, his heart was still beating fast thanks to his enphaty to Duo's feelings.

His eyes shifted to the kitchenette and a thought began to take form in his brain. Probably when he woke up again, Duo, would be hungry and what better offer than to make him something to eat?

With a grin the blond Arab hunt down some cooking book and busied himself in searching for the perfect peace offering for his best friend.

He calculated that he would be left alone for at least a couple of hours, Trowa would need to figure out where he had been wrong and how to ask nicely fogiveness before he would search for Quatre. Wufei would simply wait for him to came out, or for the right time to came and cook dinner.

A quick glance at the board show him that he was right, tonight was Wufei turn to cook, something that all of them looked forward to. The Chinese had show them what gourmet cusine was without too much effort. The former Shenlong pilot was a master chief and it was a pleasure eat each and every time he cooked.

GWBOYS 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 SYOBWG

Wufei and Trowa didn't move from their place on the bed beside the sleeping Duo. Both avoided the other gaze and kept their eyes locked on the figure laying on the bed. Neither was sure how long it was since the other two stormed out of the room. At least one hour has gone by but neither of them was ready to talk.

Another hour or two passed before either of them found the courage to confront the other. Clearing his throat softly Wufei decided to face the deed with his partner in crime "We did good, he needed it, right?"

"He needed to calm down." Trowa confirmed but didn't turn to look at Wufei.

"We didn't have any other choice..." The chinese sighed dry washing his face "He wouldn't listen..."

"Neither did we." Trowa sighed and gently stroke his patient's forehead brushing a stray lock of hair behind his ear. "He was sure of what he saw."

"But it... I killed him." Wufei stood and began to pace the room "I saw him die, Trowa, I saw him!"

"I know, and I believe you." sighing the doctor began the slow work to put his things inside his medical bag on the nightstand table "But so did he."

"But... but I killed him." Wufei Chang what at lost, he wanted to believe Duo, but his own beliefs were knocking against his. He knew he had killed Treize, and the thought hurt him even more. He was a noble man and it hurt to let him die. To make him die.

"Have you thought that perhaps Duo was drugged?" Trowa sighed and stroke his little brother's forehead "Or they could have cloned Treize."

Both men remain silent

"If that was true," Wufei frowned "which I highly doubt, the Treize he saw should have been what? Six? Seven year old?"

"He was the real one..." both turned sharply to the resting man, Duo sleepily looked at them both through half lid eyes "He was there, Dorothy was with him. She wanted him to leave me..."

Wufei was about to reply and tell him it was impossible but Trowa stopped him "Duo, I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

"You drugged me."

"I... I'm sorry for that too, but your heart was beating too fast, and I was worried about your health."

"You drugged me." Duo was getting angry and becoming more lucid each passing second. "You didn't believe me Tro!"

Sighing the doctor bowed his head "I know, but... try to put yourself in my shoes Duo. I..."

"I would have believed you." Duo was adamant on this, his motto was to never lie and his brothers in arm should have know that by now."

"I do trust you Duo." Wufei spoke up feeling left out "I know you don't lie, but..."

"Shut up Fei! You... you don't believe me, you still don't!" Duo felt the prick of tears and angrily curled up under the covers "Go away!"

"Duo..." Sighing the chinese man moved closer to the bed slowly but steadily pulling the covers out of his friend's hands and uncovering his face to look into his eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you, and I'm sorry I still find the thing to be a little difficult to accept. Can you forgive me?"

"I don't know..." Duo sighed shaking his head "I want to stay alone for a while.." he turned to Trowa "I need to think."

"I'm not sure this is a good idea little brother." with a sad smile the doctor stroke his head before turning sharply to the door where Heero was standing with a smug grin on his face and his laptop in hands. "what?"

"He may speak the truth." The former Wing pilot advanced toward the bed opening his laptop and turning the screen toward them. Without seeing he pushed a couple of button and the screen light up with a demo of a mobile suite battle. "I searched for some videos from that battle," he sat on the bed glad to see the light return in Duo's eyes as he pushed himself up curious and in awe from what Heero has done. "And I calculated a quite disturbing yet possible outcome that we didn't thouht of."

"Heero, I killed the man!" Wufei was getting angry, why was Heero dubting his words?

"I know you did Fei," The former Wing pilot nodded "But, what if someone extracted his body from the damaged suit?" He pressed another couple of bottom to demostrade his theory. "See... when the flames invaded his cockpit he was hidden from you, you were then distracted by the fight and the sorrow..." sighing he stopped the flow of words he was sure the chinese was about to say "We all know you felt grief when you had to kill him."

"He... listed the exact number of people that die under his orders... because of his orders!" Grief caught up with him again, killing Kushrenada would forever hunt him.

"He was a good man, what he did may have been a little too rash but..." Trowa sighed "But I think his goal was the right one."

"It was the same as Relena," Duo spoke up for the first time "He tried to show us all the wrong of War..."

Heero nodded "And to end this discussion, look what I found." he pressed again buttoms of his laptop and the screen show up a record from that battle, it was afraction of seconds, but before Treize's suite exploded and while Wufei was engaged in another fight with a battle suit, a mobil doll approached the burning mecha and flow away soon after that.

"Oh my god." The three on the bed watched the repeating of the recorder and then looked at each other. "He..." Duo couldn't speak, his eyes searching Heero's "He is not... he may not... I mean..."

"Yes Duo, there's a possibility that he is alive and that you saw him." Heero turned to Wufei "It's not your fault."

"M...my fault... but..." the Chinese man blinked at his friend "He..." shaking his head he fell silent and togheter with the other three watched again the scene repeating on the laptop. "Gods, he may still be alive."

After that silence fell over them, each of them mulling over part of that story. Duo trying to figure out where Kushrenada may have gone after they broke apart. Trowa was feeling sorry to have doubted the braided man. Heero was planning how to write the report to Une, knowing full well how affected their commander would be. And Wufei was trying to grasp with the realization that his guilt had been for nothing.

Suddenly the silence was broken, a loud booming sound and a sharp cry from the kitchen had them all on their feet and running toward the room. "What the hell... The door is locked!" Trowa, the first to arrive tried again to turn the knob without success, he had recognized the cry as Quatre's and his heart was beating furiously in his throat out of worry. "QUAT! Are you in there?"

"Out of my way Tro," Heero pushed their tall friend away and without another word slammed his shoulder against the door, effectively opening it.

"Geez," Duo went after him snorting at the damage "I could have open it without further damage of proprierty." Then he turned his gaze around and gasped.

The kitchen seemed a war zone, there was dirty rest of something greesy splattered all over the walls, smoke was coming from the oven, a pot of something was smashed on the floor and the same greesy substance was coming from it. And in the middle of it all Quatre.

Trowa rushed to his side kneeling beside his distraught lover taking his face in his hands "Q? Are you ok?"

Wufei blinked looking around silently taking note of the damage, Heero as well was mentally calculating how much time it would take to put it all back together. Duo was simply standing there puzzling over the gleesing thing wondering what it was and what Quatre had wanted to do.

"I...I'm sorry guys." The blond was slowly coming out of his shocked state "I...tried to make something for Duo to eat, to ask forgiveness for before..."

Heero calmly walked over the oven and turned it off, before opening it and taking the smoking casserole inside out of the window to clear the air from the smoke. Then he turned to their millionaire friend "Quatre... can you remind me of rule #9?"

"Err..." The blond ducked his head and tried to cover behind Trowa that was still trying to make sure he was alright. "I...I'm truly sorry Heero, I didn't mean for this to happen."

Tapping his lover on the forehead Trowa sought his attention "What is rule #9 love?"

"Tro... really...I..." clearing his throat the arab tried to move away only to be stopped as Wufei moved behind him. "Fei..."

"If I'm not wrong, rule #9 is the follow: _Never leave Quatre in the kitchen without supervision." _The chinese man, grief forgotten for a moment let his gaze wander around the kitchen. "We wrote those rules for a motive Q..."

"I... I know, but Duo must be angry and I wanted to show him I was sorry."

"Oh, Quat!" Duo smiled and moved to kneel at the other side of his blond friend "Thank you. I do forgave you, don't worry."

"Duo..." smiling the arab throw his arms around him hugging him fiercely "Thank you. I'm sorry I should have stopped them."

"Yes you should have," pulling apart Duo smiled "still you didn't and then you broke a rule..." raising his eyebrow the braided man smirked "I think you should take my cleaning duty for a week." he turned to the other three "What do you say?"

"You won't have cleaning duties for another couple of days Duo," Trowa reminded him pulling himself to his feet "But I agree, Quat should have cleaning duties for a week..."

"And he must clean this room." Wufei added quickly moving out of the way of a large blob of half smashed thing falling from the ceiling.

Heero sighed dry washing his face "So be it, Quatre you are hereby sentenced to one week of cleaning duty not counting the time it would take for you to clean this room, no Maguanacs allowed to help you. Got it?" He walked over and tapped the blond on the forehead before turning to Duo "And you..." he nodded for him to follow before he made his way out of the room.

Duo sighed softly knowing full well they would ask him to return to bed and having seen the sign of Heero getting annoyed he follow without complaining. Much.

"Came on 'Ro... I'm fine..." he caught up with him on the stairs toward their room but Heero kept walking without saying a thing. Sighing again Duo let himself be led to their room and sat heavily on the bed. "'Ro..."

"I know you are fine, we all know." sitting on the chair beside the bed Heero began "But I want you to rest for another day and try to remember as much as you can. Start telling me from the start what you remember. It's high time we know the full report as well."


	4. Chapter 4

!PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR THE DELAY IN POSTING. RL IS SURE KEEPING ME AWAY FROM WRITING!

DISCLAIMERS: I don't own anything... Please don't sue me for I can't afford to pay for any legal assistance.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I thank you all that took the time to read the previous chapter, especially those that encouraged me to keep writing this story. I can assure you this story will be finished, the draft is already done I just need to add the final touches and embellish it a little bit.

A.N.2: Even if the draft is done I'm always open to suggestion. Please feel free to drop a hint or a question, it gives me insight and let me judge what is the best way to follow and finish the story. Thank you.

A.N.3: I'm sorry for the mistakes I'm sure I made. I didn't have a beta for this story, I truly need one, if anyone is willing please write me a PM leaving me your email address so I can get in touch with you.

chapter 4

*_#04 – Don't take the weight of the world on your shoulder (or let the others help you)_*

For a full day and night Duo rested in his bed and room, Heero sometime went to sit with him and sometime Trowa or Wufei. The latter still was feeling bad to have doubted the braided pilot but he was plenty reassured that all was well and good again.

It took Quatre one whole day to clean the mess he made in the kitchen and a good portion of the night too. So they waited for him to wake up again before meeting in the living room to start their own investigation.

The four preventer plus one consultant found themselves seated in their living room, a white board present as well as five laptop. Each man sat facing the others, Quatre and Trowa were occupying the couch, Wufei was standing beside the board, Heero was seated in front of him on the armchair with Duo curled up against his legs, seated on the floor in front of him.

"Alright... so you went into the club around 10 pm." Wufei was writing down the information, during the first year after the war he had started looking at past television shows, specially police ones, and had took some small trait from each of them. The white board was one of those and probably the one he liked the most. "You were abducted around 11 pm, right?"

"Yes... I danced around, drank a lot..." he grinned to himself "I received a lot of free drinks..." then sighed "and went into the bathroom, of course I knew they would came but" Duo looked down almost ashamed, in part he was feeling shame and in part anger, for he didn't even hear them came behind him. "It was like they came out of nowhere, like you Tro. I couldn't even feel them."

Trowa stiffen up a little but didn't comment on it. It was true that he could slip through the shadow without being seen but like many of the others' capacity it was never discussed between them. He had always been able to camouflage, infiltration and to spy without being seen, recently he had find that he could almost be invisible if he so much wanted it. He wasn't sure when Duo had caught up with that, or if the others knew he was able to do so. He himself wasn't sure how he was able to do it. Or if he was really able to do it.

"What do you mean you couldn't feel them?" Quatre sat up straighter at that, feeling someone was usually his speciality and his interest was picked by that affirmation.

"I mean... usually when someone fix you with his gaze, you feel it, right?" he looked at the others "You know that prickle that you feel when..."

"We got it Duo, go on please." Heero tapped his friend's head and pulled gently at his braid "what happened then?"

Pouting a little and turning his head upright to glance at the stoic perfect soldier Duo grumbled something "two men, maybe three I am not sure, came up on me. One locked my head in a dead grip and the other injected me with something in the neck."

Absentmindedly he rubbed at the spot where they give him the shot "Everything went black for a while. Then I woke up and I was already in a cage..." blushing he looked down and without noticing pressed himself more against Heero's legs that he was using as back rest. "Uhm...unclothed..."

A large hand fell lightly over his head as Heero began to gently massage his scalp encouraging him to go on and firmly grounding him to the present. He was glad for this support and pressed himself even more to his friend's legs. "Then they came, I saw the vice minister and other goons with other children, " Duo's eyes lost focus as he began retelling his tale. His memories now almost intact. How they found out he was a preventer, how he was dragged into the cell, how he was tortured and then how he was saved by Treize and Dorothy.

The others remained silent, watching him and absorbing all the information. They drank in the new information, taking notes, some mental and some – like Wufei – on a white board.

"I think..." Quatre finally spoke up after a good five minute of silence after Duo finished his tale "that we best scout up that bar. What do you say?"

Heero nodded pulling up the blue prints of the building. Quatre thanked him and then spoke up again "No one – save perhaps for Trowa here – is able to sneak up on any of us like they did." He mulled things over before pointing the bathroom to the others "What if there is a secret passage here?"

"That would explain many things." Heero nodded again and printed the map of the building "For example, how did they take you out without no one noticing it?"

Duo shrugged "It could be that the owner of the bar is into those kidnapping... or maybe you are right and there are secrets passages there."

"One thing doesn't totally exclude the other." Trowa sighed and stood up "Let's go," he fixed his gaze on Duo "No lifting anything, no bending, no sudden moves. And..." he advanced flickering his fingers' on Duo's forehead "If I catch you in pain without knowing you're bed ridden for another supplementary week."

The braided man smiled and nodded thanking Wufei as he helped him on his feet. "Let's go, I want to ask some question to the staff."

Quatre smirked "Alright, I suggest we split up, me, Fei and Duo will question the staff, Tro and Heero will go check the bathroom."

Heero nodded and moved to stand beside Duo, "We'll take my car, you three take Trowa's... they are less noticeable."

Of course that made sense, but Duo couldn't help and blush finding himself escorted by Heero to his car and helped inside. One last look at Trowa told him to behave, but mostly it seems that the concern was direct toward the messy haired man instead of him. Struggling he let himself be helped and secured before relaxing back against the seat.

Soon enough they would be at the bar and Heero wanted to make sure Duo wouldn't freaking out. It was less than a couple of days since Duo had been there and of course the building wouldn't have good memories for him.

They stayed in silence during the trip, and Heero was trying to find a way to start a conversation with his friend, but like always words eluded him. It was clear that the braided man was worried and Heero didn't know how to help.

Taking a deep breath once the car slowed in front of the bar Duo looked at Heero and nodded. "I will be fine Ro, do not worry!"

Smirking and reaching over to ruffle his friend's hair the former Wing pilot turned off the car "I can't not worry, baka. Try to take it easy, and if..."

"If I'll need anything I'll let you know." smiling Duo reached over and gave his friend and small peck on the cheek "Thanks Ro, it means a lot for me to be here."

"I know, but remember how much we would be sorry if..."

"I know, I promised. I'll be careful." Taking another deep breath Duo stepped out of the car to reach the others that were waiting for them in front of the entrance. "Ready to go in, guys?" he held up a hand to prevent more lectures and pointed to Heero "He told me everything already, don't worry."

Quatre smiled and looked across the car to Wufei, "Alright then, let's go see if we can discover something important. Trowa, Heero?"

The taller guy smiled at his lover "Let's met here in a hour." He then began walking toward the back entrance of the building, Heero soon followed leaving the other three beside the two cars.

"So?" Duo smirked "Let's go!"

GW BOYS 1x2x3x4x5 SYOB WG

The barman eyed the three men walking toward him with something akin to disgust, he waved them away with a gruff "We are close boys, came back later." before resuming his cleaning duty. He had before himself a line up of glass to clean and dry and he was meticulously going on with each one.

Wufei smirked and flashed his badge before seating on a stool in front of the bar "I think you can give us your attention, and perhaps some answers."

Quatre and Duo took the seat on either side of the Chinese man and waited studying the man in front of them to gather his reaction, and surprisingly the man was giving them honest reply. Wufei asked him a couple of question before Duo lost interest in him and began to look around to find anyone that could have been present the night of his kidnapping. His mind was still fuzzy but he was sure he could recognize someone if he was careful enough.

Strange enough no one was there, apart from the bartender there weren't any waiter or waitress that were cleaning the place before opening, nor any other people. Duo frowned, he was sure there were more people when they came in. He stood up and went to spy around, looking at the dance floor, the privee, seating and all. He walked all the way to the door and back, trying to find something that could trig one of his memories but nothing.

Still the lack of people was making him nervous. His senses were on alert and lately he had found that it was bad not to listen to them. More often than not he had find that ignoring his instict was bad. The first time Heero had been shot while they were on a mission.

His mind was screaming at him to get out, to grab his friends and run away , he felt the hair behind his neck stood up and moved quickly back to the bar. Wufei and Quatre were alone, talking to each other apparently waiting for him.

"Where is he?"

Wufei gave him and half nod in welcome and pointed to the back room "He went to bring in some water bottles for us."

Quatre sighed "He was too nervous, I let him go because I know he won't run away." he grinned explaining, tapping the side of his head "I remember the blue print of this building."

"I wonder what is taking so long for him..." Standing up Wufei moved to get a better view of the open door, and froze for a moment when the blinking light of a running timer could be seen. "BOMB!"

Both Duo and Quatre have been watching their friend and realized even before the shout that something was amiss. Duo jumped forward pushing Quatre away as he slid over the counter and ran for the room. Sure enough the time was slipping and the red flashing numbers were running backward. Less than two minutes and the whole bar would be a memory.

"Duo! Get out!" Quatre was already running for the bathroom to try and warn their friends, since their cellphones were dead the moment they came inside.

Wufei jumped behind the braided agent and stood with him, watching time running away and possibly watching their life run out of time.

"Give me your knife 'Fei!" kneeling beside it Duo was already moving to inspect the bomb, expert fingers flying over the whole thing studing the quickest way to disarm it. Receiving the knife he soon has the thing open and completely exposed to them. "I can slow it..." he flashed his best Shinigami's smile before jumping into work.

Quatre ran toward the bathroom where Trowa and Heero disappear some time prior, throwing the door open he shouted their names in warning. The place was totally void of life, neither agent was present, but Quatre wasn't overly concerned. The bomb Duo was diffusing was more worrisome than Heero and Trowa disapperence.

He qaa about to turn around when the sound of a door opening behind him make him turn. A portion of the wall opposite to where he was standing turned and out came both Trowa and Heero hurrying toward him with worried expression on their faces.

"Let's call the bomb squad and let's go out of here. There's a bomb!"

Trowa hurried over to Quatre taking hold of his arm and pulling him toward the exit. "We know it already," the blond huffed as he was being dragged away. "Duo and Wufei are trying to disarm it."

Heero threw him a look "Where?"

Finally catching up to what the other two were trying to say Quatre hurried over to the door where Duo and Wufei were working, "Duo! Wufei!" He jumped over the counter in the same way Duo did before and went to their side "We have to get out!"

"Man," Duo said while unlocking yet another side-trap of the bomb "I'm almost done, we don't have to hurry anymore." he smiled over his shoulder and then frowned watching the pair of scowl on the two approaching ex-pilot. "What's up?"

"We don't have time, let's go out." Heero looked around taking hold of the braided preventer and yanking him toward the exit. Trowa followed suit with Wufei and Quatre, "The underground is full of explosives."

No needing to be told twice, the other pilots began to ran toward the exit and once out they all ran as far as possible. They didn't know the extension of power that the explosives had but still it was imperative to be as far as possible.

They just barely jumped out of the door before hell break through. The ground began to shake as the bombs in the underground began to explode one after the other. The whole building began to collapse soon enough and fire flare up everywhere.

GW BOYS 1x2x3x4x5 SYOB WG

Trowa found himself thrown by the explosion against the wall of the building in front of the bar, glass were seeping into his arms and scattered everywhere around him. He made a quick search of himself and account for his own injuries and decided he was well enough to stand up.

Debris were everywhere a couple of cars have been throw against each other and some were roasting on the other side of the road. Smoke was flooding the whole area and it was making him cough a little.

Sounds of sirens could be heard already and he was grateful for this, at least chivalry was coming to the rescue, even if it was a little too late. He was still trying to regain his balance when his phone began to ring.

"Barton." Flipping it open he coughed harshly and then relaxing hearing on the other side Commander Une voice.

"Where are you all? I tried all your phones for the last part of a hour."

"At Crowd Bar." He coughed again "there was an explosion."

Silence fell on the other end of the line before Une barked again "Status."

"Bruised, battered and probably some smoke inhalation," he looked around "Dizzy for being thrown against a wall." He sighed "I don't see the others, yet. I will search."

"Zechs is on his way to you. Do not engage."

Trowa's mind did a retake of the whole conversation because he wasn't sure who they weren't suppose to engage against. Then voices' were heard from across the street, in a corner of the burning building where he couldn't see perfectly.

"Hands up! Do not move!"

"What the hell are you doing?" Duo's voice came raspy from across the street and it was obvious that he was getting pissed. Frowning and pulling out his gun Trowa approached the spot still with the phone open.

"Police! Don't move!"

"Are you crazy? I'm a Preventer, let me show you my…" Duo's voice was cut off by a series of painful sounding coughs.

"I said don't move, scum! Hands where I can see them." Trowa heard two different voices, and the hair in the back of his neck stood not recognizing either of them together with Duo.

"Commander," he whispered softly "is there something I should know…"

"Relena is now on route to here, General Hamilton and Cuskvief are dead." Frowning more. "General Smithson and Colonel Boupres are now in charge of Police department, military and Govern."

"What…" Frowning even more and crouching low he spied the scene in front of him. "Commander, I can see Duo and Quatre. They are surrounded by police agents. They are kept at gun point."

"Status?"

"Quatre is unconscious, I can't see anything from here, he doesn't appear to be bleeding. Duo is holding his side, probably his injuries have re-open or something is hurting him. He is standing over Quatre."

"Heero and Wufei?"

"I don't see them." Shifting slowly he closed his eyes and became one with the wall. Modification. All thanks to the chemical the mad-five gave them, Trowa was now able to blend more with the shadows. It was something he had discovered during the years, apparently his natural skill to blend and not be seen was now complete, he could hide everywhere and not be seen if he so much choose not to be. And he suspected his friends had some unsaid skill as well.

He shifted slightly as he can now see the whole scene. Quatre was spread on the ground, like he said to Une he was not bleeding but that didn't reassure him or anything. Duo was barely standing, swaying dangerously while trying to appear unfazed by the agents around them.

It was clear that he didn't understand what was going on, Trowa neither was understanding.

"What's going on Une?" he hissed softly not giving away his position.

"I was telling you, there's a coup d'etat, military men have overthrown the Govern. They tried to arrest Relena, we prevented it only thanks to Hamilton and Cuskvief, they sacrificed themselves."

"Preventers?"

"Are now declared corrupted and illegal, we are organizing and regrouping."

"Where?"

"Marquise and Po are coming, find Yuy and Chang and recover…"

A gunshot brought Trowa's focus to the present, Duo has thrown himself over Quatre's still body and was now clasping his shoulder. "Fucking moron!" he heard his braided friend growl dangerously, knowing full well what that voice meant.

Those policemen would soon find themselves with Shiningami to hold at bay - not something easy even for trained preventer agents - Duo's dark side was difficult, almost impossible.

He shifted again now standing behind the agent that shot his friends "Commander, I have to go, we'll call later."

"Don't. I'll see you when you arrive."

Shutting his phone down the silent Preventer shifted a little more until he could reach the officers without leaving the comfort zone of shadows. He reached easily for the two men in front of him and with barely any strength he pulled their head together effectively knocking them out.

Then Trowa moved alongside the wall and moved to close the distance with the others agents surrounding the injured duos. He didn't even reach the next man that soon they were all down, Wufei appearing apparently out of nowhere.

Sighing to himself Trowa stepped out of the shadow approaching the Chinese man "Status?" He seized his friend up and down to make sure he was in good condition before moving to kneel beside the other two.

Wufei nodded and took point covering for him and the others, scanning the zone in search of signs of Heero. Duo growled deeply at the approaching shadows, but a soft word from Trowa soothed him.

"Where the hell have you been?" he growled letting his taller friend give him a quick check before pointing to Quatre "He took a nasty blow to the head, I tried to cover for him but.."

"I saw." The taller ex-pilot smiled at him as he went to check on his lover, "he seems to be fine." Then he turned back to Wufei. "Heero?"

A shrug was his first answer "I was thrown over there, I heard voices and came to check on you."

"So where is he?" Duo shifted nervously pushing himself to his feet ignoring the pain in his side nor the new wound in his shoulder. "Could they have taken him?"

"Negative." The familiar voice came from behind them, Heero stood there sporting a bleeding gash to his forehead but apart from that seemed uninjured. "I had some problem of my owns." He explain his tardiness.

"What the fuck were they doing?" Duo sighed approaching Heero to make sure he was really fine, while Trowa carefully lifted Quatre in his arms. "They didn't even let me show my badge."

"It wouldn't have helped at all." The tall latino explained carefully walking over to them and signaling Wufei to do the same. "Commander Une called, apparently things are complicated, we have to wait for Sally and Zechs, they are coming to pick us up."

"What do you mean complicated?" Wufei frowned rubbing the side of his head he had banged during the explosion.

"Coup d'etat." Was everything Trowa said as he signaled the others to move toward the building and take cover.

"How bad?" Heero sneaked an arm around Duo's waist pulling him against his side. It was made without noticing, and it was more to self-assure himself than giving support to his friend. Duo didn't seem to mind as he melted into the one armed hug with a soft smile on his tired face.

"Bad enough, Preventer are regrouping, Relena is on the run."

"Shit." Wufei growled and knelt beside one of the unconscious men they took down. "Do we need prisoners?"

"I highly doubt any of them would know anything." Duo sighed and leaned more against Heero. "Do you think any of this is tied to my kidnapping?"

Trowa frowned and shrugged while the two Asians looked at each other. No one could answer him but the thought certainly crossed their mind. The bomb, the overthrow and everything else were too sudden to be a coincidence. Then the fact that Treize reappeared.

Heero sighed and looked around "How far were they?"

"Unknown. Une said not to engage anyone." Trowa nodded to Wufei and handled his bundle over before moving to Duo. "We need to take you two somewhere safe so that I can check you over more carefully."

"I'm fine… but why is Quatre not waking up?" Duo shifted a bit and felt the arm around his waist tighten a bit. "I promise you Heero, I'm not so bad…"

"Your definition of not so bad is very different from my own." With a sigh the Wing Pilot shifted in place to better take his friend's weigh in his own. "Why don't you sit down a bit, we have got your back."

Shaking his head Duo turned a bit to smile up "Enemy territory, I can stand if you help me, do not worry."

Trowa's phone trilled again and he quickly snacked it open. "Barton."

"Across the street." Was the only reply he got before the connection was cut on the other end. With a nod to his friends he began to move away from the wall they were hiding behind and scanned the zone. There on the other side of the road was Zechs leaning against the wall, two police officers unconscious at his feet, arms crossed over his chest as if it was a complete normal situation.

Smirking the tall latino nodded to the others and took point, walking slowly to came across the street. Wufei with Quatre were next, and Heero with Duo took the rear. They reached Zechs without any problem, and followed him. This time Trowa took the rear since the tall commander was in front and the group swiftly reached the large van that was waiting for them not far from their meeting point.

"Uhm…" Duo mumbled tiredly as he slid into one of the back seats "Isn't this a bit too visible for a group of preventers on the run?"

Heero sat beside him pulling him against his chest while, Trowa slid in beside him and Wufei pass Quatre over to rest on his lap.

"It's the best we could find," Sally's head came out from the front seat and smiled gently to them, no one could miss the tiredness in her face as she moved to help Trowa check on their friends. "What happened to you?" her voice took a hard tone as she looked over to Duo.

"Not my fault!" the braided pilot hurried to say while Heero shifted him over the seat so he was more laying down on his lap than seating. "It was those scumbag fault, who is the smartass that took over the force?"

"General Smithson and Colonel Boupres" Zechs reply calmly while driving on with a sedate speed. "We are regrouping on Pacemillion. Some of our men have been arrested, we have many injured and a couple of causality."

Wufei hissed at those words and looked back to his fiancée "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Sally gave him a smile before pulling out supplies from a first aid kit she had with her and began to clean Duo's worst injuries "We were lucky, Noin was taken down while protecting Relena, we had to send people to retrieve her from a holding cell in district nine, they didn't even bother to clean her shot site."

Trowa grunted then and steal a glance to Zechs but the commander was impassible as he drove on, no sign of discomfort nor of anger. The tall latino pilot turned back to his still unconscious lover and frowned "They hit him with something, I can see a neddle hole in his neck and his pulse is slowly decreasing."

Wufei cursed and turned around from the gunshot place he was seated in to steal a glance at his comrades "Heero, status?"

"They tried to hit me too with a tranquilizer gun, I shot them back." The former wing-pilot was fixing his gaze on Sally's hands that were working quickly over Duo.

"Tro?"

"I'm fine Wufei, they didn't even see me. Apart from a couple of bruises from being throw over the wall, I am operative. You?"

The Chinese sighed "I think I have got a couple of bruised ribs, it hurt slightly to breath."

Cursing loudly Sally swirled around "What the hell, Wufei?"

"You needed to focus on Duo, and Trowa to Quatre, I'm not in danger." He shrugged slightly and turned to look back forward "This is not the way to the spaceport."

"They close it up to prevent us to escape." Zechs sighed "How is Duo?" he called back to Sally while quickly turning toward a private airspace land. "Is he up for travelling?"

"Even if I wasn't, I wouldn't stay here alone." The braided man smiled to himself "Even though I wouldn't mind give those assholes a piece of my mind."

"Well, with a bullet wound, the gash on your side open and I guess a couple of more bruises you are now officially on desk-duty Duo." Sally smiled and turned back facing forward "He can travel, so can the others. Hurry up Zechs, we need to reach P-mill asap."

"Working on it, babe…" The blond smirked as he step on the gas pedal when sounds of sirens could be heard. "Working on it… hold tight!" He cried out before pulling the car to an abrupt stop. "What…"

"What the hell ZECHS!" Duo hollered from behind before pulling himself up to a sitting position, helped by a glaring Heero and a cursing-like-a-sailor Sally.

Trowa has braced himself and held onto Quatre while they stopped and now was gazing silently outside the car. Wufei was likewise silently looking forward eyes larger than normal as he studied the outside. "Is that…"

"Are those…" Zechs shook his head trying to clear it.

"Yeah…" Trow murmured before opening the car and stepping outside. "If you are running away, I suggest you better get in the car, we have got company…" he threw a look behind his back at the fast approaching police car. He sat back inside and scurried over to place Quatre on his lap and make room for the two newcomers.

Sally was looking at them with her mouth open and even Heero had a somewhat surprised gaze on his face. Only Duo was smirking and finally pulling himself up he slapped his hand on the seat in front of him. "Zechs, for the love of what is holy, press up that foot on the pedal or I will came and kick your ass while rooting in the holding cell beside yours!" Then grinningly he turned to their unexpected guests. "Well… I can finally thank you for getting me out of those cages, Treize."


End file.
